Patterned hydrogel substrates for cell culture with electrohydrodynamic jet printing.

Cells respond to and are directed by physiochemical cues in their microenvironment, including geometry and substrate stiffness. The development of substrates for cell culture with precisely controlled physiochemical characteristics has the potential to advance the understanding of cell biology considerably. In this communication, E-jet printing is introduced as a method for creating high-resolution protein patterns on substrates with controlled elasticity. It is the first application of E-jet printing on a soft surface. Protein spots as small as 5 µm in diameter on polyacrylamide are demonstrated. The patterned hydrogels are shown to support cell attachment and spreading. Polyacrylamide substrates patterned by E-jet printing may be applied to further the study of cellular mechanobiology.

Comparison of Control Algorithms for a MEMS-based Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope.

We compared four algorithms for controlling a MEMS deformable mirror of an adaptive optics (AO) scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Interferometer measurements of the static nonlinear response of the deformable mirror were used to form an equivalent linear model of the AO system so that the classic integrator plus wavefront reconstructor type controller can be implemented. The algorithms differ only in the design of the wavefront reconstructor. The comparisons were made for two eyes (two individuals) via a series of imaging sessions. All four controllers performed similarly according to estimated residual wavefront error not reflecting the actual image quality observed. A metric based on mean image intensity did consistently reflect the qualitative observations of retinal image quality. Based on this metric, the controller most effective for suppressing the least significant modes of the deformable mirror performed the best.